A Clip from “It’s Your Career, After All” with Douglas E. Welch from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Douglas E. Welch (http://douglasewelch.com) presents to the class Career Development – Theories and Techniques at Pepperdine Graduate School of Education & Psychology taught by fellow CareerCamp Co-Chair, Danielle Gruen
Transcript:
And sometimes the decision is no. I’m going to have to do this for now. If you do feel like you’re in a situation that is really intractable, what I recommend is — fine, deal with that the best you can — but make sure, for your own self-interest, to have something else that makes you happy. My wife, many years ago, we moved to Los Angeles 29 years ago, for my wife to be a television writer. And she started working in the industry as a writer’s assistant — because that’s where you learn how to do all the TV writing stuff and someone told her — she got an agent eventually — and someone told her, “It’ll take you 10 years to get a career. Ten years to really get your first staff position. You’re first full time job writing on television.” And she was just knocked back — “Ten Years!? I can’t wait 10 years! That’ll be forever.” And I said to her, just out of the blue, for whatever reason — I have some good thoughts on occasion — I said to her, ” You need something to give you validation while you’re struggling with this very, very, difficult thing you are trying to do.” Because television writing is a really tough world to live in. And it does take a long time to establish yourself. She’s a writer, always has been a writer, and I said, “Why don’t you write some magazine articles? Why don’t you write for the LA Times?” We both had Op-Ed’s in the LA Times in the past when they had a Valley Edition, years ago. Those were our little ways of getting that little hit of “Ooo, I did something good. I got something printed. I — this is good — you get a little food feeling about yourself while you’re slogging through the mud of this other issue that perhaps doesn’t have a solution right now. Eventually, she got an agent. She got a couple of freelance scripts. She got a staff job and away she went. So, it did eventually happen, but I really feel you have to have something — even if its only a hobby — but something that gives you a sense of satisfaction totally divorced from the harder issue. Because, if you simply wallow in that harder issue, it will will bury you. it will just eat you up.
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